Jessica Karam

Reflection on the Peer Review Process

Since I was in Middle School I can vividly remember learning about and practicing
the peer review process. As a teacher, I know that it is invaluable and have my
students engage in that same process. This all being said, I was still extremely
surprised and pleased by how much this process helped me revise my own work. I
initially operated under the assumption that my peers would be too kind out of fear
of offending me. This is probably because I was worried about offending them. As
teachers I know we put our hearts and passions into designing lessons. I also
figured, like you suggested, that everyone was either creating something they
would eventually use in the classroom or modify something they had been using
(the latter being even more nerve wracking). I didnt realize that the responses
were anonymous until after I had completed all of the surveys of my peer group.
Because I felt that my feedback data would be skewed, I assumed that the only
option was to compare my own work against the rubric with a fine tooth comb.
Again, I was pleasantly mistaken.
Although I appreciate the feedback I received and the time it took to review my site,
I found that the majority of my revisions came from my own self-reflection prompted
by reviewing my peers and comparing their work against the rubric. I found that
with a few of my technology tools I had lost sight of my original intention to meet
ISTE standards because of re-focusing on my subject area standards. This came
from my repeatedly referencing the rubric and noticing that what others were
missing was also missing from my work. Reviewing units outside of my subject area
also helped me refocus on the ISTE standards. I had forgotten how reviewing
others work is the best way to really familiarize oneself with the rubric.
I was able to see what I liked and didnt like about other peoples sites just as far as
layout, navigability and aesthetic appeal. Here is a list of things I changed because
of MY reviewing of other peoples work. After watching a 10 minute site overview, I
immediately shortened mine. I realized that, if functional, the site shouldnt need
that much explaining. I realized that I wanted my documents to be physically
located next to the corresponding resources included in the site and not at the
bottom of the page or all together in one packet (how I had originally had them).
After brainstorming, I only came up with actually modeling, in person, ethical web
behavior. For the life of me I couldnt think of a way to demonstrate this standard
over the web. I had the Aha! moment (more like duh! moment) when I
observed the simple fix of a document uploaded with the standard Schoology
internet code of conduct. I modified that set of rules to better fit my own site and
simply added an I have/ have not read this form. Finally, the digital editing
aspect of the review reminded me to double check my own site as I came across
links that produced error messages, were dead or with closed permission settings,
documents that wouldnt load etc.

Jessica Karam
There were also several things I fixed thanks to specific feedback through Survey
Monkey. I had forgotten to merge two documents so my standards only included
World Language and not ISTE. This is something I wouldnt have noticed because I
had technically checked it off my list when I created the separate ISTE standards
document. I also hadnt incorporated any sort of research aspect through which
the students actually would find their own resources. I had provided all of the
authentic resources because I worry about the foreign language aspect and what is
actually comprehensible for the students. I received a peer comment encouraging
me to add this aspect and after reflecting I realized that the students wouldnt
choose a resource that was too hard or incomprehensible to them and added it in.
Finally, a peer pointed out that the students were doing most of their
communicating with me and not each other so I added more opportunities for
students to interact and collaborate. Initially, I had only included one opportunity to
interact with one set of comment and reply boxes. I added three more opportunities
for students to interact, give each other feedback and collaborate directly (two
written and one spoken).
All in all, this process was infinitely helpful.